Scientists believe that there were bees as long as a 120 million years ago.

Today they are facing a huge number of problems that are threatening their (and our) existence.

One of the most worrying is the exposure to chemicals called neonicotinoids that are in insecticides such as Roundup. Why we should be surprised that a chemical designed to kill insects is affecting bees I don’t know.

Other problems that are stressing bees is a lack of forage plants, exposure to herbicides, as well as the insecticides. They are also being infected by various diseases and mites.

We all need to help bees, and ways of doing this include not pulling up weed plants such as dandelions early in the season, as bees rely on them to survive until the warmer weather comes.

BUT – MAKE SURE that any seeds or plants you use are not impregnated with chemical insecticides, or you will instead be killing your bees!

Interesting facts about bees:

They buzz in the key of ‘A’, unless they are tired, in which case they buzz in the key of ‘E’.

Bumblebees have hair on their eyes.

Bees do a waggle dance when they get back to their hive to show the other bees where they have found a good food source.

In other words, they use sign language.

One last thing – if you come across a bumble bee, or other type of bee, that is looking tired and drowsy, just resting on the ground, then it may have overloaded itself with pollen. It will unable, through tiredness and lack of food, to return home. You can save it, the instructions are here, by the RSPB.

I’ve been concerned about the stories of bees disappearing in our area. Your post reminds us of the importance the bees have in the ecological system. Beside the issues of pollination that could have devastating consequences if it were hindered, I love honey and would hate to see it become scarce and highly expensive.

Arlee, sadly, your blog is one of those that I can’t comment on. I try with Google, and every other type of ID, including openID, and each time it either says ‘there’s a problem, clear your cache’, (I have), or ‘oops, something’s broken on Blogger’. It’s only the blogs with your type of comment box that does this to me, but it drives me mad as there are so many fab blogs I can’t comment on! Many Blogger blogs allow me to comment, but not this type. I’m so sorry. But great blog for B, anyway! In these circumstances when someone has visited me, I post their blog address with a recommendation, so others can see it, but in your case, at number 1 on the list, this is hardly necessary!

Cross-commenting on the different platforms seems to often be a problem among bloggers. It’s really to bad. I used to have a lot problems commenting on WordPress then somewhere along the line I must have figured it out and now rarely have a problem. I wish there would be some sort of uniform commenting standard instituted to make it all easier.

I’ve never heard of anyone getting the messages you are describing so I don’t know what that problem might be. Maybe you can try sometime in the future and it will work for you. Thanks for leaving the comment here letting me know you tried at least. I do try to monitor the conversation at most of the sites where I have left a comment.

Thanks, Arlee. every year I hope it will be ok, but no… now I check at the end for the comment box before I read the blog, but try sometimes every day just because I so want to contact the author! I have even searched for someone by Google and emailed them the comment before now. One day I hope to find the answer.

Thank you for your informational post about bees. Not enough people realize how important they are. (Myself included, if I’m being honest.) Thank you for visiting my blog earlier. It’s fun to be int he A-Z Challenge together, both of us writing about animals. I’ll see you around! 🙂

What an awesome post. Seems like I ought to check out your book, as well. I was delighted to see a bumblee already on my spring pansies. The decline of bees in general scares me, honestly. I try to leave all native insects alone as much as possible (invasive stinkbugs with their ability to damage food crops stink in more ways than one!) and am learning more and more about organic gardening. Long live the bee!

Great post and I love honey! We can’t live without it and my hubby and I have often talked about the plight of the bees. We have found bees that seem lethargic. My hubby has picked them up and gently placed them in the grass but I will read what he should do

Oops unsure if I posted right-I love honey and so does my hubby. We have often spoken about the plight of bees. We have seen lethargic bees but I never knew it was due to what you said. My hubby has taken them and gently placed them in the grass out of the sun. I will read now what one should do

Honey is always different depending on the origin of the pollen. My brother-in-law was an apiarist and his honey tasted different according to where he placed his hives and what was flowering at the time. 🙂

Thank you so much for the link on how to save a bee. I am very much aware of the danger to bees from our way of life and have tried to educate others on their plight. One study I saw you might be interested in, (I can’t find the link right now) a researcher set up an experiment where some hives had a household cordless phone near it while others did not. The bees did not return to the hives with the phone nearby. They went on to show the “noise” created by cell phones and cell towers which confuse the bees resulting in them not being able to find their hives.

Another human created problem for bees is the amount of honey we take from them. We take so much that many bee keepers replace the honey with high fructose corn syrup which the bees can’t metabolize and therefore starve. I quit eating honey out of guilt over this issue because it’s hard to know if my honey was the last amount the bees needed to survive.

Ho Lois – I know it’s tricky, certainly with new hives, to know if the bes will survive the winter – it depends on whether they go into a ball (how they keep warm) near enough the supply of honey or not – this is a natural way that they do not survive, and the bee keeper can’t do much about this.
The way to be sure that the honey you are eating has been carefully produced is by buying it from a home-producer or small business. They would go bust if they did not look after their bees. Supermarkets were found to have honey on the shelves last year that was not honey – sugar and all sorts had ben mixed in with it. You are right to be wary. But buying from a small producer will mean you can have honey without being scared of hurting the bees – they only ever take a percentage, they have to leave enough for the bees or it wouldn’t work.